Question

It would take ___ steps to arrive at 0, from 256, by repeated subtraction method of odd numbers, to find its square root.

Answer 1

The square root of a number can be found by repeatedly subtracting odd integers from the number starting from 1.
So in this case,
256 - 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 9 - 11 - 13 - 15 - 17 - 19 - 21 - 23 - 25 - 27 - 29 - 31 = 0.
We have to subtract 16 consecutive odd numbers starting from 1, hence 16 steps are required.

$\therefore$ Square root of 256 is 16.